Speaker cable -no shorter than 8FT? T or F

There is no technical reason for this. With all cables, shorter is better with perhaps one exception.

With transports that have slow signal risetimes, in order to avoid reflections that can cause edge jitter, it is prudent to use S/SDIF cables that are at least 1.5m long.

Any of you old silver backs, like me, remember Bob Fulton and his Fulton Gold cables? All the rage in the '70s. These cables were 2 gauge (!) and Bob only sold them in specific lengths. I had a pair of his 57" on my subwoofers for years. Bob claimed that 57" was the correct length, not 5'.

Mapleshade's claims are/were based on the specific design of their cables (I have discussed this with Pierre @ Mapleshade).

To make use of longer lengths the cables can be ordered untwisted (@ least they could be 3 years ago) and in this application the (+/-) on each speaker is separated from one another along the length of the run by approx. 6". The left/right runs should also be separated from one another (6" - 8"). However, there was still a recommeded maximun length with this configuration.

Have not read any recent info @ their site, but when I looked into it the length guidelines pertained to "their" cables and were not a general rule of thumb.

I passed as I could not easily come up with a 24" wide channel in which to run the cables (my cables @ that time ran through wooden boxes installed in the sub floor).

Dekay - what technical basis is there for the Mapleshade limit?

Eldartford,
You're right. 1 meter does have a better sound than 3 feet four inches. ;-)